| FRESH EGGS AVAILABLE TUESDAY 3/8 We will have fresh eggs available tomorrow from 9:00am until 7:00pm. Email or text me if you’d like a dozen or two. farmers@traciesfarm.com or 443-994-4629. Eggs will be in cooler in front of barn. $5/dozen SPRING SHARES START 3/16 The start of our CSA season is almost upon us! If you signed up for a spring share, be on the lookout for an email from me regarding pickup instructions. This is a busy time of year for me, but I’m hoping to have something out by next Monday at the latest. The greenhouses are looking good for the first week of shares! Lots of spinach and lettuce mix ready to be picked!  On the Farm First of all, thank you to all the members that signed up to help us meet our goal last week! We entered March with 96 shares sold. Four less than our stated goal, but well beyond where we used to set the mark. Early signups are so important for the farm, and this year more than ever. It seems like every week we are hit with another bill that exceeded our projections. Fertilizer was the big one this week. Early signups help us recover from big expenses early in the season before we start harvesting. So thank you! We are officially under way for 2022! Seeding in the greenhouse has begun, and it is filling up fast. All of our onions and leeks are seeded, as well as crops that will go in to the greenhouses for spring shares. Flowers are the big one this time of year. It is a little early for us to be starting things like broccoli, tomatoes, or squash. We don’t start those until mid to late march. Flowers are fun in the greenhouse. A lot of the seed has much more specific directions for germination. Vegetables are so easy, ha. Just stick em in the soil about a 1/4″ deep and in a couple days you’ll start to see the first bits of green poking up. The flowers like to be coddled. They can take up to a couple of weeks before they start to put out their first leaves. And until then you have to make sure they get the right temperature, watered at the right time–“consistently moist but not saturated” was one I read today–, and planted at just the right depth. Some want light to germinate. Some don’t want light. And some want light but only a little bit! They can be challenging, but I think that is what makes them so fun. We set up a new irrigation system in our greenhouse today. Whoop! That was a long overdue project. We’ve been dealing with high salts in our greenhouses the last year or so and part of the problem was that we did not overhead water enough to help flush the soil. We used drip tape for all of our seedings which keeps the soil “moist, but not saturated” (maybe I should use the drip tape for the flower trays). With overhead watering you can really drive salts deep down into the ground if you run them for long enough. Salt buildups aren’t really a problem in fields around here because we get plenty of rain to flush them away. But when using composted manures or organic fertilizers in a high tunnel, you have to be careful because there is not natural rain to flush it out. I’ve been using a lawn sprinkler for too long, and today I installed some lines and hanging sprinklers to be able to water the entire greenhouse at once without moving the sprinkler head every hour. That’s pretty much it for tonight. There was just a big storm that passed through, but we kept our power on. That’s super important for us this time of year when we rely on electricity to keep the propagation house warm through the night. Hope everyone is weathering the storms alright!  Monadnock Mobile Food Pantry Locals’ Local Fund Last year, Monadnock Farm & Community Coalition partnered with The Community Kitchen to conduct a feasibility study for a mobile food pantry for our region, a longstanding goal of both organizations. The study found that significant gaps remain in our region’s food security network due to limited resources (hours of pantry operation, food storage capacity, food sources) within the system. Secondly, the study found the 2nd most common indicator of food insecurity was a lack of adequate transportation. A Monadnock Mobile Food Pantry would effectively address both gaps identified. This is where you come in… MFCC, recognizing the importance of viable and sustainable producers, has committed to create a fund to ensure that healthy, local foods will be available to food insecure members of our community. The purpose of this fund is to support local producers who will be selling fresh, local food at a negotiated price to the Monadnock Mobile Food Pantry. We know that you deeply understand the benefit of locally produced food to our health, our local economies, and our environment. Getting local onto the mobile food pantry is a win-win for everyone involved. MFCC applied for and was awarded the opportunity to jumpstart the “Locals’ Local Fund” on The Local Crowd Monadnock platform. Our goal is raise 10k annually to purchase local products for distribution on the Monadnock Mobile Food Pantry. In order to launch this crowdfunding campaign, we need your help to raise 1/3 or $3333 prior to its initiation. Would you please consider becoming a Groundbreaking Supporter for the Locals’ Local Fund benefiting the 2022 soft launch of the Monadnock Mobile Food Pantry? DONATE NOW Your coalition thanks you. Our farmers thank you. Our community members experiencing food insecurity thank you.  Summer CSA Shares! Summer Shares are available! Right now we are at about 55% sold on shares, and orders keep coming in every day. We have a 16 week full share or an 8 week half share available. The full share gets a basket every week, and the half share gets one every other week. They feature staples and as well as lesser known varieties. In total we grow about 30 unique veggies for the summer season! Home delivery is available in 11 towns. Dublin, Fitzwilliam, Harrisville, Jaffrey, Keene, Marlborough, Nelson, Peterborough, Rindge, Swanzey, and Winchendon. Flexible payment plans so you don’t have to pay all at once. Summer CSA Share Signups  Delivery Drivers We are looking for delivery drivers for the following towns: Keene and Peterborough.. In exchange for about 1-2hours per week you are provided a full CSA share with eggs and bread added on for no extra cost. If you would like to learn more please email Jack Rixey at farmers@traciesfarm.com Thank you!  Fall Shares! Still quite a ways out, but it doesn’t hurt to plan ahead, and the fall share helps you plan through the winter. Plenty of potatoes, sweet potatoes, garlic, carrots, winter squash, and more to last you well into January and potentially beyond. Fall CSA Share Signups!   Workshare! Don’t have the time to commit to an entire season? The workshare position is perfect for folks that want to spend a day out of the week working and learning on a farm! We love having workshares on the farm because it is an opportunity to meet members in the community. The farm feels more alive with lots of people around. Workshares fill a wide variety of roles on the farm. ▪ Lunch Prep ▪ Farmers Market ▪ Harvest ▪ Weeding ▪ Wash/Pack ▪ Field ▪ & Delivery Drivers! In exchange for working seven hours per week on the farm, workshares are fed lunch on their workday and receive a weekly basket of produce with the bread and egg options included. Typically those hours are completed in one day, with the exception of the lunch prep workshare. If you are interested in a workshare position, please call or email Jack: 443-994-4629 — Farmers@traciesfarm ©2022 Tracie’s Community Farm, LLC | Tracie’s Community Farm. 72 Jaffrey Rd. Fitzwilliam, NH. 03447. Web Version Preferences Forward Powered by GoDaddy Email Marketing ® |
| FRESH EGGS AVAILABLE TUESDAY 3/1The hens over on the Frazier’s side of things have started to pick up.We will have fresh eggs available tomorrow from 9:00am until 7:00pm.Email or text me if you’d like a dozen or two. farmers@traciesfarm.com or 443-994-4629.Eggs will be in cooler in front of barn. $5/dozen |
| It’s almost March! WOW! That came so fast. I have been working outside, in the greenhouses, or in the barn since Wednesday, so I guess that means the season has officially begin. On a March related note, we made a goal of selling 100 Summer CSA shares by March 1st, and we are SO CLOSE to our goal. We only need 6 more people to sign up before the end of the day tomorrow. The 100 shares by March was a pretty ambitious goal since we usually aim for that mark by April, but CSA provides a ton of security to the farm, and selling out of shares sooner rather than later is a huge help. Especially this time of year when we are working on all of our repairs, buying supplies, and gearing up for the season. So if you are planning on signing up but haven’t yet, now is a great time! Aside from the shares, the farm has been busy the last week. We had one of the full timers come in on Wednesday and Thursday to prep our greenhouse for seeding this week. One of the end walls had to be replaced and a center dividing wall was moved a little bit. Then moving all of the tables. My actual least favorite job on the farm. Usually when I have a least favorite job it lasts for about a season until I figure out how to do it more effectively. Even rolling up hoses doesn’t bum me out anymore. But moving the first tables in the spring when I’m out of shape can be killer. The next project is re insulating our walk in cooler after noticing some leaky areas. I took a look at it today and realized it will be a bigger job than I initially expected, but am hoping to have it ready by the first week of spring shares. Off the farm I’ve been cross country skiing since the last snow storm. The sun has been great even with the cold days. I’m hoping we get one more snow storm before the end of winter. Poor man’s fertilizer, as the call it. Good for skiing and the fields! |
| Summer CSA Shares!Summer Shares are available! Right now we are at about 40% sold on shares, and orders keep coming in every day.We have a 16 week full share or an 8 week half share available. The full share gets a basket every week, and the half share gets one every other week. They feature staples and as well as lesser known varieties. In total we grow about 30 unique veggies for the summer season!Home delivery is available in 11 towns. Dublin, Fitzwilliam, Harrisville, Jaffrey, Keene, Marlborough, Nelson, Peterborough, Rindge, Swanzey, and Winchendon.Flexible payment plans so you don’t have to pay all at once. |
| Delivery DriversWe are looking for delivery drivers for the following towns: Keene, Peterborough, Swanzey, Jaffrey, and Rindge. In exchange for about 1-2hours per week you are provided a full CSA share with eggs and bread added on for no extra cost. If you would like to learn more please email Jack Rixey at farmers@traciesfarm.comThank you! |
| Fall Shares!Still quite a ways out, but it doesn’t hurt to plan ahead, and the fall share helps you plan through the winter. Plenty of potatoes, sweet potatoes, garlic, carrots, winter squash, and more to last you well into January and potentially beyond. |
| Workshare!Don’t have the time to commit to an entire season? The workshare position is perfect for folks that want to spend a day out of the week working and learning on a farm! We love having workshares on the farm because it is an opportunity to meet members in the community. The farm feels more alive with lots of people around. Workshares fill a wide variety of roles on the farm.▪Lunch Prep▪Farmers Market▪Harvest▪Weeding▪Wash/Pack▪Field▪& Delivery Drivers!In exchange for working seven hours per week on the farm, workshares are fed lunch on their workday and receive a weekly basket of produce with the bread and egg options included. Typically those hours are completed in one day, with the exception of the lunch prep workshare.If you are interested in a workshare position, please call or email Jack:443-994-4629 — Farmers@traciesfarm |
Tracie’s Farm — Spring Shares Start Soon, Fresh Eggs
| Store in Summer |
Good Evening, Everyone!
We will have eggs available tomorrow again! I’ll put em out around noon in front of the barn. Stop by whenever to grab a few. Feel free to text before you come by 443-994-4629.
Another exciting week on the farm, as always. We’re getting all ready for our first big greenhouse seed of the season. A few more tables to move around and surfaces to sanitize, and we’ll be off.
I finished up all of our schedules for the year. All that’s left is to hole punch them and stick em in a binder. It feels like finishing a book. Every week is represented, and every planting, seeding, mulching, and fertilizer application is accounted for.
We have been interviewing for our full time position and are nearly hired out for the season. It feels good to have that taken care of at this point in the year, at the same time, the year is nearly begun!
Finally, our spring shares start soon! There are only three more weeks til I’m emailing about what’s going in the baskets. Right now spinach, lettuce mix, chard, and kale are looking like they’ll be ready. Arugula, brassica mix, and claytonia are well on their way as well. If you’re on the spring roster, I’ll be in touch soon. If you’re still waiting to sign up for summer shares, today is the day!
The “Persephone Period”
Good Evening, Everyone!
I have been working on homework for the business planning course I’ve mentioned before, and it’s given me a late start on the newsletter!
The homework has been a lot of fun so far, and we only have a couple classes left. At the end of it I will be presenting a business pitch focusing on one aspect of our farm, complete with power point and written document. I’ve chosen the store to hone in on for the project, hence the store pic this week. The CSA is our primary focus on the farm, but we have been growing the store over the past couple of years without as clear a vision as I would like. I spend a lot of time planning for the summer CSA every winter. I build crop schedules, harvest projections, create a budget, as well as a myriad of other documents to follow throughout the season. So I figured I would dedicate class time to working building the same foundation for the store. The hope is that it will be a living document that helps guide the farm through decision making as we navigate building up the store.
On the farm has been exciting, as well! Since seeding two Fridays ago, some of the seeds have started to poke through the soil! Germination is an absolutely incredible process to watch, and the cool weather makes it almost go in slow motion. I can check in every morning and evening and see a few more cotyledons (the first leaves to come up through the soil, preceeding the first “true leaves”) poking through the soil. So far it is looking like we have had pretty good germination. I The soil dried out pretty good over the last week. Tomorrow I will run the sprinklers inside the houses to give em a little more moisture as they come up.
Last thing that I forgot to mention last week. On February 3rd we left the “Persephone Period” in farming. That is when there are less than 10 hours of sunlight during the day, and symbolizes the dead of winter. It’s important in farming because during that time nothing really grows, or it grows extremely slowly. It usually begins in late November and ends early February for us. Our first seed of spring is aligned with the end of the Persephone Period because it is when we will see the most growth in the greenhouses as the days get longer. Even this week I have seen our chard, kale, and spinach plants get bigger than I saw all winter. Just one of my favorite little parts of farming that I thought I’d share with you.
That’s all for tonight. Check out how to get eggs if you want them!
| Summer CSA Shares! Summer Shares are available! Right now we are at about 40% sold on shares, and orders keep coming in every day. We have a 16 week full share or an 8 week half share available. The full share gets a basket every week, and the half share gets one every other week. They feature staples and as well as lesser known varieties. In total we grow about 30 unique veggies for the summer season! Home delivery is available in 11 towns. Dublin, Fitzwilliam, Harrisville, Jaffrey, Keene, Marlborough, Nelson, Peterborough, Rindge, Swanzey, and Winchendon. Flexible payment plans so you don’t have to pay all at once. |
| Fall Shares! Still quite a ways out, but it doesn’t hurt to plan ahead, and the fall share helps you plan through the winter. Plenty of potatoes, sweet potatoes, garlic, carrots, winter squash, and more to last you well into January and potentially beyond. |
Workshare!
Don’t have the time to commit to an entire season? The workshare position is perfect for folks that want to spend a day out of the week working and learning on a farm! We love having workshares on the farm because it is an opportunity to meet members in the community. The farm feels more alive with lots of people around. Workshares fill a wide variety of roles on the farm.
| ▪ | Lunch Prep |
| ▪ | Farmers Market |
| ▪ | Harvest |
| ▪ | Weeding |
| ▪ | Wash/Pack |
| ▪ | Field |
| ▪ | & Delivery Drivers! |
In exchange for working seven hours per week on the farm, workshares are fed lunch on their workday and receive a weekly basket of produce with the bread and egg options included. Typically those hours are completed in one day, with the exception of the lunch prep workshare.
If you are interested in a workshare position, please call or email Jack:
443-994-4629 — Farmers@traciesfarm
First Seed of 2022! Spring Shares Sold Out.
Happy Sunday, Everyone!
Sorry you haven’t heard from me much, my computer was out of commission for a few days and I’ve only had it back since Friday. It was a good week for it considering most of my to do list dealt with seeding our high tunnels for Spring Shares! The first seed of 2022! Spring shares sold out last week, and I don’t want to make anyone jealous, but the tunnels are loaded up for the coming months. I put down Spinach, Lettuce Mix, Brassica Mix, Arugula, Claytonia, Dill, Carrots, Peas, Cilantro, Radishes, and Turnips! The rest of the spring crops are transplanted or seeded into the tunnels in March. This is my favorite time of year for growing! The tunnels offer a little more control over climate, and it all seems very manageable. That being said, I was at the will of the weather the last week while I seeded.
The beds inside the tunnels were frozen solid on Monday morning when I went in to start getting each bed ready to be seeded. A little bit of prep work was done a couple weeks earlier, but they all had to be raked out smooth and removed of any debris that could get clogged in the seeder. The first week of February is my deadline for the first seed of the year. As long as crops get in by then, they start to mature just in time for the beginning of spring shares. Luckily through the week we got a warm up with all that cloudy weather and rain. The soil needed to thaw out at least a couple of inches to seed into, and having a couple nights above freezing let me start watering first thing in the morning instead of waiting for hoses to thaw. The watering is really the issue. If it is too far below freezing, the hoses running to the greenhouses will freeze up and you can’t water in the newly seeded beds.
Right now we use a lawn sprinkler in the greenhouse, but this spring we’ll shift to an overhead watering system. Small systems for greenhouses have gotten pretty affordable and will save a significant amount of time spent moving sprinklers around. We use a drip tape system for the tunnels as well, but it is better for germinating greens to overhead water.
Aside from seeding this week, I have been working on the business quite a bit through the Farmer Business Planning Course hosted by the Hannah Grimes Center. This course has demystified a lot of the business end of the farm. I am definitely going into the coming year feeling more informed and prepared than I ever have on the farm.
Summer CSA Shares!
Summer Shares are available! Right now we are at about 40% sold on shares, and orders keep coming in every day.
We have a 16 week full share or an 8 week half share available. The full share gets a basket every week, and the half share gets one every other week. They feature staples and as well as lesser known varieties. In total we grow about 30 unique veggies for the summer season!
Home delivery is available in 11 towns. Dublin, Fitzwilliam, Harrisville, Jaffrey, Keene, Marlborough, Nelson, Peterborough, Rindge, Swanzey, and Winchendon.
Flexible payment plans so you don’t have to pay all at once.
Fall Shares!
Still quite a ways out, but it doesn’t hurt to plan ahead, and the fall share helps you plan through the winter. Plenty of potatoes, sweet potatoes, garlic, carrots, winter squash, and more to last you well into January and potentially beyond.
Workshare!
Don’t have the time to commit to an entire season? The workshare position is perfect for folks that want to spend a day out of the week working and learning on a farm! We love having workshares on the farm because it is an opportunity to meet members in the community. The farm feels more alive with lots of people around. Workshares fill a wide variety of roles on the farm.
| ▪ | Lunch Prep |
| ▪ | Farmers Market |
| ▪ | Harvest |
| ▪ | Weeding |
| ▪ | Wash/Pack |
| ▪ | Field |
| ▪ | & Delivery Drivers! |
In exchange for working seven hours per week on the farm, workshares are fed lunch on their workday and receive a weekly basket of produce with the bread and egg options included. Typically those hours are completed in one day, with the exception of the lunch prep workshare.
If you are interested in a workshare position, please call or email Jack:
443-994-4629 — Farmers@traciesfarm
Tracie’s Farm — Important Update on Price Increase Feb 1st
Good evening,
As we order supplies for the coming season, we are seeing firsthand the effects of inflation on our costs. The impact has been greater than we anticipated, with an average increase of 30% over last year. This is the greatest single year increase I’ve seen in my seven years at Tracie’s.
As a result, we will be raising our prices for summer and fall shares beginning on February 1st. Coming to this determination has been a difficult process, and I assure you that we are not passing on the full impact of our increased costs. We are doing everything we can to be more efficient so that we can keep our prices as low as possible. As such, we are instituting a ~7.5% price increase on our shares. Starting February 1st, our prices will be as follows:
Full Summer Share $610
Half Summer Share $350
Fall Share $325
Anyone interested in knowing more about our budget is welcome to reach out. Here are some examples of items impacting our cost structure:
| ▪ | In 2021 we were able to buy a pack of 50 carrying trays for our field starts for $21.70. That same item now costs $39.50. An increase of 45%. |
| ▪ | Vermiculite, a naturally occurring element that we use to condition potting soil in the greenhouse, saw a 31% price increase this year. |
| ▪ | The biodegradable plastic mulch that we use in our fields to help reduce weed pressure and keep our overall labor costs down saw a 19% price increase over the past year. |
We see our CSA as a collaboration between the farm and the community. In exchange for your support early in the season to help cover the high startup costs on the farm, we provide our members with months of local, fresh, and healthy produce. It gives me great pleasure knowing that something we produced winds up on the dinner tables of our members, and I love that it is all possible because there were enough people to chip in to make the farm work for another season.
We are not passing on the full cost of inflation because we believe in that collaboration. It is not just the responsibility of our members to cover the increase in expenses, that also falls on us. The February 1st deadline to institute the price increase was chosen to give members that had been planning on purchasing a share at the previous price the chance to still do so. I feel it is also appropriate to mention that we have flexible payment plans to fit most budgets, and that the full cost of a CSA share does not need to be paid up front. Additionally, if the price increase does not fit into your budget at all, the Monadnock Farm Share Program is a great resource for subsidized CSA shares, and we offer some shares through that program. I would like to finish by saying thank you to everyone that has supported us over the years, and I hope you know that we want to support you, too.
Best,
The Team at Tracie’s Farm
| Summer Shares! Summer Share Signups are Open! We have a 16 week full share or an 8 week half share available. The full share gets a basket every week, and the half share gets one every other week. They feature staples and as well as lesser known varieties. In total we grow about 30 unique veggies for the summer season! Plus home delivery is an option! |
 Spring Shares! ONLY THREE LEFT! Limited space available! Just about 18 shares left in the spring season. We get started on March 16th and are looking forward to a bountiful spring. If you know, you know, the spring share is a great deal when there is usually still some snow on the ground. |
| Fall Shares! Still quite a ways out, but it doesn’t hurt to plan ahead, and the fall share helps you plan through the winter. Plenty of potatoes, sweet potatoes, garlic, carrots, winter squash, and more to last you well into January and potentially beyond. |
What’s Up on the Farm
I am writing the newsletter from my parents house in Annapolis, MD tonight. My mom worked from home as a masseuse my whole life, and she has determined to make the shift from practicing massage to teaching massage. Much like farming, massage is manual labor and eventually wears you down. After years of training, she is offering her first course on Shiatsu Shin Tai massage, and I am down here learning a part of her trade. Who knows, maybe over the winters I will work as a part time masseuse!
This will be my last extended period of time off of the farm until probably December. When I get back I will do our first seed in the ground in the greenhouses–spinach, lettuce mix, brassica greens, tokyo bekana, snap peas, carrots, cilantro, dill, arugula, radishes, and turnips–and after that it is off to the races on the 2022 season. It’s always a little bit daunting of a proposition, but one I look forward to every year.
Before I left we had one of our part timers, Joe Muhonen, in for a meeting about switching to a full time position. Joe has been working with us since my first year managing five years ago, but he was only ever able to come in on Fridays. We’re both excited about having him around more often on the farm. While we talked, we prepped beds for the big seed coming up next week.
Aside from that, I work daily on the business and management end of the farm. Preparing schedules for the coming year, working out budgets, updating our website. Seeing some of the costs of goods for this year was pretty sobering. The website is still under construction while it has it’s main pages up and running. Working through the Farmers Business Planning Course has given me a lot of material for the site, as well clearing up some motivations of my own on the farm. I was never one for mission statements, but as part of my homework the last week I was tasked with coming up with a vision, mission, and purpose statement for the farm. I have to say, going through this process has totally changed my opinion. I now see the value in writing down a guiding philosophy for decision making on the farm, and I wish I had done this work years ago. I am hoping to share some of the work I am doing once the class is done.
That’s all for tonight. I hope every one has a great week, and in just a short 6 weeks I will start to see some of our spring share members on a weekly basis! Can’t wait!
We are Hiring for 2022!
2022 marks our 23rd year of growing vegetables, and we are looking for a few of inspired individuals to join us!
We look for hardworking, enthusiastic, and self-motivated team players who are serious about farming and have a positive attitude. Employees are expected to work long days on your feet(paid hourly), lift 30lbs, follow directions, and pay attention to details, while having a good time with the rest of the crew.
Full Time positions are Monday through Friday — ~45 Hrs/wk — >28 Weeks out of the year — $13/hr
Lunch Provided on All Work Days
Please E-Mail Jack with any Interest in our Employment Positions
Farmers@TraciesFarm.com
Barn and Greenhouse Specialist
Positions Available: Full Time
Position Description: The barn and greenhouse specialist position does exactly that, they focus on keeping the barn and greenhouses running smoothly. The barn is the hub of activity on the farm as the farmers come in and out, customers visit the store, and members come to pick up. In the barn, this position primarily deals with the washing and packing of all produce, stocking the farm store, packing orders, and preparing for markets. In the greenhouses, this position is involved with potting up seedlings, watering, moving trays between houses, keeping the plant stand stocked, and pruning and trellising cucumbers and tomatoes.
The barn and greenhouse position requires close attention to detail, excellent organization, and ability to follow specific instructions. There will be crossover with the field tasks, but the focus is in the barn. Barn and Greenhouse Specialists are expected to be leaders in the barn when workshares and field crew are with them.
Full Time: ~45hrs/wk @ $13/hr. April – November
Workshare!
Don’t have the time to commit to an entire season? The workshare position is perfect for folks that want to spend a day out of the week working and learning on a farm! We love having workshares on the farm because it is an opportunity to meet members in the community. The farm feels more alive with lots of people around. Workshares fill a wide variety of roles on the farm.
| ▪ | Lunch Prep |
| ▪ | Farmers Market |
| ▪ | Harvest |
| ▪ | Weeding |
| ▪ | Wash/Pack |
| ▪ | Field |
| ▪ | & Delivery Drivers! |
In exchange for working seven hours per week on the farm, workshares are fed lunch on their workday and receive a weekly basket of produce with the bread and egg options included. Typically those hours are completed in one day, with the exception of the lunch prep workshare.
If you are interested in a workshare position, please call or email Jack:
443-994-4629 — Farmers@traciesfarm
Newsletter 1/17/22
| |
| Good evening, everyone! I hope people had a relaxing three day weekend (maybe even more people got it with the snow?), and happy MLK Day. I’ve spent the past week and a half getting back into the rhythm of the farm in the winter. I’ve had plenty of computer work to get done, as well as some maintenance in the greenhouses. I hope everyone that got the greens last week enjoyed them, and my apologies to everyone that reached out just a little too late. Here’s a shameless plug to sign up for a spring share ASAP! There are about 18 shares left, and we get started in just over 2 months. That’s just for the start of shares. Bed prep for the spring has already begun! I was getting rid of greens last week to prep for the beds that get seeded on February 2st. I’ll seed 8 beds on the first day of February: Spinach, Lettuce Mix, Arugula, Brassica Mix, Radishes, Turnips, and Carrots. By February 23rd the heater in our propagation greenhouse gets fired up, and we fill the benches with onion transplants and more spring crops. I’ve been working on a new website to replace our old one over the weekend. It is up online now. There are sure to be some hiccups as I finish off some of the final touches. The pertinent information is sound, though. Check it out if you haven’t been in a while! It still needs some more information–I’d like to add some recipes–but there are plenty of photos, and it’s an upgrade from our previous site. While I was working on it I realized I should be asking members to review us online from time to time. So if you have anything positive to say or have been happy with our produce, and are feeling motivated, give us a review on facebook, google, yelp etc! It can be really important for an online presence, and anything is appreciated. https://traciesfarmnh.wordpress.com/ There’s been more this week. I’ve spent a lot of time working on our seed order, and we have seeds on the way. I am taking part in a Farmers Business Planning Course at the Hannah Grimes Center sponsored by the Cheshire County Conservation District. The conservation district paid for 6 farms tuition in the course, so big thanks to them! We had one class so far and it is really great to be in a room full of farmers talking about business goals. I believe there is going to be another course next year? If so I highly recommend all farmers, both established and prospective, check it out! Even though there is more, I’ll end it there. Check out our shares for 2022! |
| Summer Shares! Summer Share Signups are Open! We have a 16 week full share or an 8 week half share available. The full share gets a basket every week, and the half share gets one every other week. They feature staples and as well as lesser known varieties. In total we grow about 30 unique veggies for the summer season! Plus home delivery is an option! |
| Spring Shares! Limited space available! Just about 18 shares left in the spring season. We get started on March 16th and are looking forward to a bountiful spring. If you know, you know, the spring share is a great deal when there is usually still some snow on the ground. |
| Fall Shares! Still quite a ways out, but it doesn’t hurt to plan ahead, and the fall share helps you plan through the winter. Plenty of potatoes, sweet potatoes, garlic, carrots, winter squash, and more to last you well into January and potentially beyond. |
| Barn and Greenhouse Specialist Positions Available: Full Time and Part Time Position Description: The barn and greenhouse specialist position does exactly that, they focus on keeping the barn and greenhouses running smoothly. The barn is the hub of activity on the farm as the farmers come in and out, customers visit the store, and members come to pick up. In the barn, this position primarily deals with the washing and packing of all produce, stocking the farm store, packing orders, and preparing for markets. In the greenhouses, this position is involved with potting up seedlings, watering, moving trays between houses, keeping the plant stand stocked, and pruning and trellising cucumbers and tomatoes. Full Time: ~45hrs/wk @ $13/hr. April – November Part Time: 16-24hrs/wk @ $12/hr. June – October The barn and greenhouse position requires close attention to detail, excellent organization, and ability to follow specific instructions. There will be crossover with the field tasks, but the focus is in the barn. Barn and Greenhouse Specialists are expected to be leaders in the barn when workshares and field crew are with them. Field Specialist Positions Available: Full Time and Part Time Position Description: Field Specialists are concerned with carrying out the day to day field operations. The fields are carefully maintained and we look for individuals that are able to pay attention to details and follow instructions. Field crew deals with all harvesting on the farm as well as planting, weeding, trellising, bed prep, grass maintenance, and mulching. Field crew members will be taught how to drive the tractors and use field equipment. Full Time: ~45hrs/wk @ $13/hr. April – November Part Time: 16-24hrs/wk @ $12/hr. June – October Being able to work quickly and efficiently while alone is a must, as well as being a leader in the field when workshares or barn crew members are with them. |
| Workshare! Don’t have the time to commit to an entire season? The workshare position is perfect for folks that want to spend a day out of the week working and learning on a farm! We love having workshares on the farm because it is an opportunity to meet members in the community. The farm feels more alive with lots of people around. Workshares fill a wide variety of roles on the farm. ▪Lunch Prep ▪Farmers Market ▪Harvest ▪Weeding ▪Wash/Pack ▪Field ▪& Delivery Drivers! In exchange for working seven hours per week on the farm, workshares are fed lunch on their workday and receive a weekly basket of produce with the bread and egg options included. Typically those hours are completed in one day, with the exception of the lunch prep workshare.If you are interested in a workshare position, please call or email Jack:443-994-4629 — Farmers@traciesfarm |
Tracie’s Farm Newsletter — Happy New Year!
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| Happy New Year, Everyone! I am writing this newsletter from quarantine in upstate NY where I spent my New Years Eve, and as such have not been able to return to the farm since. Friday night I started to feel symptoms of COVID, and on Saturday morning I tested positive. Luckily it has been a mild case, but it is taking a frustratingly long time to test negative and drive back to New Hampshire. I have been able to get plenty of computer work done in the mean time. Lately I’ve been working on our master schedule for 2022, which includes all of our seeding and planting dates, as well as our projected harvest dates and more maintenance tasks. It is always fun to farm from a computer–it’s so under control!New Years has always been my favorite holiday of the holiday season. I love the feeling of a fresh start, like you can leave everything behind you and just focus on what is to come. I don’t think I am alone in feeling that a lot of 2021 can be left behind, and although 2022 hasn’t begun the way I would have liked (see: me being stuck in quarantine in upstate NY) there is plenty more of the new year to come. There is also plenty from 2021 that I am grateful for. It was another year of learning and growth, as they all are on the farm, and I wouldn’t cast that aside for anything. I got to work with a wonderful group of people this year–some I have been working alongside for years, and others that I got to form new relationships with. I picked up new hobbies off of the farm. It turns out that I LOVE playing ultimate frisbee, and joined a pickup league over the summer. I met loads of new people through ultimate, and even a couple of new farmer friends. It turns out the real die hards even keep playing through the winter. I’m not quite at that level of obsessed yet, but on a warm(er) day when I don’t have much to do I go out and play from time to time. I think the most important lesson I learned in 2021 was that I need to take some time for my own personal interests outside of the farm. I love my job, and often when people ask me why I work so much I say its because it is also my hobby. Planning and growing and tending to the plants is just genuinely what I want to do with my time, but because it is my job and my biggest hobby, it can quickly become my whole life. I learned to step back a little bit and find some things I enjoy off of the farm, and that taking some time for myself will not doom the season. Actually, it helps me stay fresh longer through the season without getting burnt out on it. So as much as I am looking forward to the new year, I am grateful for everything 2021 had to offer. The good and the bad.If anyone else has anything they are grateful for from 2021 that they would like to share, please send them my way! I love to hear what others have to say, and if I get enough replies I’ll put some of them in the next newsletter. Happy 2022, everyone. Here’s to hoping it’s the best year yet. |
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| Summer Shares After listening to feedback from our members, we have decided to implement a few changes to our summer shares in order to best serve our members. ▪One Size Share, with different frequency. Instead of multiple share sizes that often left the half share with a basket that never felt like enough produce, we have decided to make the half share a difference of frequency. Now there will just be a Full Share and a Half Share. The full share will receive 16 weeks of produce throughout the season, and the half share will receive 8 weeks of produce. This is a change a long time in the coming as we have noticed other farms using this model for share sizes with great success. We believe this will result in a more consistent and bountiful share for all of our members. ▪Removing produce add-ons to include the most variety in all of our CSA shares. Add-ons were once used as a way to allow members to boost the amount of produce in their share each week. The removal of add-ons will make for a more equitable share for all of our members, and give the farmers a little more leeway to include veggie items that many of our members would have liked to receive, but couldn’t justify shelling out the extra cash for. ▪One distribution day in order to simplify harvest and provide the best quality produce to all. We used to pass out to members on two days in order to split up the labor of harvest, and ease the burden of distribution on our barn crew. That meant that baskets would differ a little bit on share days depending on which day of the week we were harvesting. With only a single share day, all baskets will receive an equal share of the produce, regardless of share day. I look forward to this change as it will make for an improved product for all. ▪Dropping the canning share sizes, but offering more bulk produce options to our members. The large family share and the family share used to be shares that members would use if they were interested in canning and storing. Although we will not be offering these share sizes anymore, we plan to increase the availability of bulk produce for our members to use for storage. CSA members will have access to discounted bulk produce such as: Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Basil, Beans, and any other produce we grow extra of that is suitable for putting up. |
| Feel Free to Reach Out. I understand this will come as a big change to some of our members. Particularly members that used to get the family and large family share sizes. Please keep in mind that we are only implementing changes because we feel this will benefit all of our share members, including those that used to receive the larger share sizes. If you have any questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to reach out to farmers@traciesfarm.com. |
Tracie's Community Farm 